Machine type communication (MTC) is a form of data communication which may involve one or more devices or entities that do not necessarily need human interaction in order to communicate. Respective communication networks may include any number of MTC capable devices. Metering devices or tracking devices are typical examples of MTC devices. As used herein, the term user equipment (UE) may include MTC devices.
Capabilities of MTC devices may vary, and the capabilities of the MTC devices may depend on the requirements of one or more MTC applications. Categories of features of machine type communications may include one or more of: Time Controlled, Time Tolerant, Packet Switched (PS) Only, Online Small Data Transmissions, Offline Small Data Transmissions, Mobile Originated Only, Infrequent Mobile Terminated, MTC Monitoring, Offline Indication, Jamming Indication, Priority Alarm Message (PAM), Extra Low Power Consumption, Secure Connection, Location Specific Trigger and Group Based MTC Features including Group Based Policing and Group Based Addressing.
The number of MTC devices in use may grow quickly, for example, with deployment of M2M. Current procedures designed for user equipment (UE) may not be optimized for groups of UEs. For example, redundant location information may be sent by each UE in a group to the network leading to a high signaling load and to unnecessary UE battery consumption. In some scenarios UEs may be moving together or co-exist together as a group, in which case the triggering of certain procedures, such as mobility, including cell updates and location registration (or RA/TA) updates, or RRC establishment, may cause unnecessary excessive signaling and overloading of the air interface and the network itself.